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Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: A mouseless tale: trying for a keyboard-driven desktop

It's not ALL bad, when I recently replaced my 2012 MacBook Pro with a 2024 Air M3, I was pleased to see that Apple FINALLY allows tabbing in system pop menus for things like Save, Delete, Close and selecting those options with the Space bar. Not sure when that was added as default behaviour, but I always found this frustrating coming from Windows. The interesting thing is that precisely one app I used on the 2012 MBP - Ableton Live Digital Audio Workstation - always allowed keying through popups flawlessly - so the underlying capability was there.

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: Ask HN: How do I get good at math as a 42yo with kids?

I'm in a similar situation but a decade older. My "aha" moment came with Ivan Savov's "No Bullshit Guide to Math & Physics". For some reason working through this book "sticks" in a way that Khan Academy and similar online tools haven't. That, combined with randomly reading entries in "Mathematics 1001" have gotten me to where I can read through audio acoustics/DSP and information theory papers (my main area of interest) and understand what's going on.

https://minireference.com/

https://books.google.com/books/about/Mathematics_1001.html?i...

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: Oliver Heaviside and the theory of transmission lines (2021)

Curious if anyone here is also familiar with loudspeakers built on the acoustic transmission line (TL) principle? It comes and goes in hi-fi circles, I have a bass instrument cabinet produced by the now-defunct Euphonic Audio. It's an interesting TL design featuring a whizzer cone on a 12" speaker. While it isn't the deepest-sounding bass cabinet I've heard, it is very balanced & detailed throughout its range with great projection, and no phase cancellation in the mid/high ranges due to the whizzer/no crossover design. Thanks!

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: 100 years of Bell Labs [pdf]

TIL that Harvey Fletcher (who I knew from his acoustic/audio work, particularly the Fletcher-Munson loudness curve) contributed to the Millikan oildrop experiment. Thanks!

Another great resource for understanding what went on at Bell Labs is Richard Hamming's "The Art of Doing Engineering: Learning to Learn"

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: Documenting an 1115 ft radio tower climb

The Fred Dibnah stuff is some of the most impressive stuff I've seen, not just the scaling heights but the logistics of building the ladders as he went, and the demolition of large brick structures with a minimum of tools.

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: 2400 phone providers may be shut down by the FCC for failing to stop robocalls

By pushing new lines on you even if you don't need them, creating very low expectations for technical service, and automating away customer service at every turn.

I feel like there is a shadow cartel where all telcos agree to suck as much as possible so there's no real incentive to switch. Also aggregators love re-bills where you pay them for another provider's invoice but they can't do anything service-wise on it.

At my work (in charge of 140 Windows laptops/iPhones) the only way T-Mobile would give me a deal on 30 new iPhones was by selling me 50 new SIMs for lines I told them I absolutely didn't need. I'm turning those off now. Don't even get me started on Granite or Telepacific, each of which make Comcast and AT&T look like shining examples of greatness.

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: SF tech CEO's billboards are 'dystopian.' That's how he wants it

Well to be fair, the rest of the billboards in SF off the 80/101 are generally bland and corporate AF. Gee, another HR/payment processing platform. Wow, a new iPhone! Anyone unfamiliar with the SF Bay Area's rich cultural history who was just passing thru would think it's a company town filled with docile, well-scrubbed tech serfs.

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: AT&T says it won't build fiber home Internet in half of its wireline footprint

Funny, AT&T says they couldn't offer fiber to my address at my old house, or the one I moved to across the street. Of course I can get Sonic fiber at both addresses...which uses...drumroll...AT&T's fiber infrastructure.

It pains me especially that this is the company that way back in the day gave us Claude Shannon, Richard Hamming, and the transistor.

I don't know why they want to get out of the copper business...after 2022 FTC change, copper lines increased like 10X in cost and the provider has literally no legal obligation to provide uptime guarantee/support, sounds like a telecom's wet dream!

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: The Tube Computer

Ooh those must sound glorious! I've never played through one, but have been close to Vox AC30 guitar amps cranked up loud!

For non-musician HN'ers, if you've heard Brian May with Queen, that's the sound of overdriven Class A EL84s!

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago | on: Ask HN: What are your most regretted tech purchases?

I had to buy a laptop on 24 hour notice for a consulting gig I had. I really regret getting an Acer. Cheap construction, no discernible thermal management, and the screen would regularly go completely blank with the IBM MDM/corporate spyware the customer required, I had to do a paperclip reboot several times each time I used it. Also terrible IRQ latenecy for audio.

Besides that, any wireless speakers using Bluetooth - it's a garbage consumer technology that I can't believe became a standard. Curious if there was a superior "Betamax" to its "VHS".

Optimal_Persona | 1 year ago

Car drivers potentially face consequences in terms of loss of license, and should be carrying insurance if something happens. No equivalence for cyclists and honestly the Netherlands is the least safe I've felt as a pedestrian in regards to hostile cyclists.
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